Every year around Christmas and Easter, the usual hyenas emerge from the brush to worry at the Church’s heels. This year, as a little gift to the Christ Child, the National Catholic Reporter (aka Fishwrap) has teamed up with an entity I’ve never heard of, the Global Post, to excrete a series of articles which have no other purpose than to harm the Church through distortion of facts.

The Global Post, which is funded by the Ford Foundation, which also funds anti-Catholic groups such as “Catholics For Choice“, and which has board over-lap with Planned Parenthood, and Fishwrap are teamed up to lie about what the Holy See is doing in regard to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR – a subsidiary of the Magisterium of Nuns).

Global Post/Fishwrap would have you believe that the “the Vatican” is being mean to the wonderful nuns because they work with the poor, etc.

Not so.

The Holy Sees doctrinal concerns are not at the thousands of religious sisters in these USA who work with the poor, care for the sick, and teach children properly, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude, and whom the Holy See says we owe “admiration”.

To get at what the Holy See is really doing, we have to go back to the Doctrinal Assessment (at the Vatican website HERE and at the website of the USCCB HERE) issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). There, and only there, can any true investigation of what is happening begin.

The Holy See clearly states why the LCWR has been reined in. The Church’s enemies will ignore the Doctrinal Assessment and, as a deception, repeat in a mantra that nuns work with the poor, etc.

The Pope and his Curia have already expressed several times their admiration (the word they use) for the work of US nuns in schools, hospitals and care of the poor. The Doctrinal Assessment clearly states that appreciation.

If you want proof, read the Doctrinal Assessment.

The actions taken by “the Vatican” in regard to the LCWR have nothing to do with these good works by nuns in these United States. Nor is “the Vatican” trying to get nuns back into wearing habits or living in convents (good as these things would be). No, the CDF’s disciplinary action against the LCWR concerns doctrine only. For Fishwrap readers, that means its about Catholic teaching.

Specifically, the CDF’s Doctrinal Assessment, published in English on the Vatican website (NB: they are not hiding it!), accuses the LCWR of distancing itself from Catholic teaching concerning womens ordination and homosexual behaviors. The CDF’s written assessment offers as an example specific passages of Sr. Laurie Brinks address about some Religious moving beyond the Church or even beyond Jesus.

Get that?

Sr. Brink tells the nuns that they should move beyond Jesus.

Whats at stake is the drift among some U.S. nuns away from the Churchs faith in the central role of Christ and His Body, the Church, in human salvation. The CDF implies that some in the leadership of the LCWR have embraced forms of inter-religious dialogue based upon the alleged or supposed equality of all religions.

The CDFs intervention in the LCWR is not aimed at the nuns good works on behalf of the poor.

The CDR is not asking the sisters to renounce Vatican II reforms.

By contrast, the nuns and their allies hurl that false charge back at the CDF while refusing to address the real issues which the Pope and his Curia have openly expressed, in writing, for all the world to read.

Fishwrap and its “global” Ford Foundation/Planned Parenthood/Catholics For Choice allies are engaged in a campaign of obfuscation.

The landscape in Kansas City is littered with the bodies of the children of the “editors” of the fishwrap, whose parents were far more committed to the “causes” of the fishwrap than they were to their own families. Fighting with bishops, committing adultery, consorting with liberation theology “priests” were activities far more important to these people, communists really, than being good people of the Book

So what do you sugest an outsider should do? Just ignore everything that doesnt come directly from the Pope?

Well, a couple of suggestions:

1. Always refer to the Catechism and the Scriptural citations therein for a reality check.

2. The National "c"atholic Reporter is a notorious source of dissenting and heretical views - they are pro-abortion, pro-priestess, pro-lay control of churches, and anti-bishop and anti-Rome. Some of their positions make Rev. Ian Paisley look like a member of the Knights of Columbus.

What you want to read instead is the National Catholic Register, which is orthodox and faithful.

3. Benedict XVI has appointed some really great bishops, many of the older American bishops who were more interested in liberal politics than Christ are retiring and being replaced by good men. A good rule of thumb is that the younger the bishop, the more faithful to Christ and the Church.

The answer to your question largely depends both on how long an answer you want—longer will naturally be more precise—and how much time you are inclined to give investigating things Catholic. If you are looking for a nine-word answer that involves a minimal amount of time, you could do much worse than what you suggest. The only thing I would do to improve your answer would be to pluralize “Pope” as what previous Popes have said with regards to teaching carries as much weight as what the current Pope says. As the Papacy is in charge of teaching and preserving the tradition that is handed down, other Catholics matter only insofar as they are in conformity with the Pope.

AnAmericanMother’s suggestions are good if you want an answer that is more sophisticated.

There are all sorts of things that come forth from Popes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church carries more weight than most and is a handy reference work. If something isn’t referenced in it (say gun control) there is a good chance that the Church doesn’t have an official stand on the issue.

Many Catholics besides the Pope say things. If you have an idea of what the Popes have said and see that a Catholic has a track record of speaking in accord with these things, they may be worth listening to—but to the extent that they have a contrary track record, don’t bother.

There are many further nuances—e.g. different Papal statements carry different levels of authority—but your gut instinct is a good place to start.

13
posted on 12/28/2012 10:33:38 AM PST
by Hieronymus
( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))

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